ASUSTek's gains came partially on the back of strong tablet sales. With a lineup anchored by the Google Inc. (GOOG) branded Nexus 7 tablet, ASUSTek tablets ascended to third place, bumping down Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN). ASUSTek sold 3 million tablets in the quarter.

Most of ASUSTek's tablet sales came from its Android models (particularly the popular Nexus 7), but the company has also seen some small gains from its Windows 8 tablets, which are currently among the most affordable Windows tablets on the market. Its 10-inch VivoTab Smart is priced at an attractive $450.

ASUSTek hopes to expand its base by becoming the first OEM to offer 7-inch Windows (8) RT tablets. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is rumored to be preparing a 7-inch Surface tablet already. ASUSTek Chief Executive Jerry Shen said the price of such a small Windows 8 tablet would likely be under $300 USD. That's in line with an Intel Corp. (INTC) executive who in April said Windows 8 tablets could soon hit $200 USD or less. Mr. Shen elates, "We're very optimistic about sales for Windows 8 tablets this year."

The battle of the last three years has clearly not been Intel vs. AMD, but x86 vs ARM. ARMchair commandos have long said x86 can’t compete because it’s just too power hungry. But remember, ARM is no brainiac chip. Even the super weak sauce old iterations of Atom have been performance and on power parity with ARM chips (non-believers see here). Intel says Silvermont will easily stomp all ARM chips into the dirt. While, Intel didn’t actually directly say the ARM word during press briefings but you don’t have to be Steven Hawking to guess what CPU architecture Intel is comparing Silverton to. Even with the power consumption of ARM chips far exceeding Silvermont, those CPUs still can’t match Silvermont’s performance. Up against four competing ARM chips, Intel says at the same power use, Silvermont will be from 1.6 times to 2.3 times faster and consume from 3 to 5.8 times less power.

Yup... I have always said Intel is like a sleeping giant and if they decide to focus on mobile, they can take it back. AMD woke them up a decade ago with Athlon64. The first 64bit, dual core and on die memory controller caught Intel sleeping. Intels answer was the Core line and it immediately stomped AMD back to the bargain bin and since then, Intel has been unstoppable on the mainstream CPU front. Now they are focusing on mobile (a few years late if you ask me) and all ARM makers should be concerned. Already today in shipping products, 32nm Atoms are fast as hell and everage on power. Anyone that thinks x86 is too power hungry isnt looking at todays products. Add a few more power/design tweaks and a process shrink and Intel is on top.